Advances in communications technology, such as switching systems that can support Local Area Signaling Services (LASS) capabilities, Information Services Digital Network (ISDN) protocols, and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) standards, have allowed communications carriers to offer a rich set of communications services features to their subscribers. These features include various methods of screening, and forwarding or otherwise rerouting telephone calls. For example, the name or telephone number of the caller party can be displayed on the recipient's telephone (e.g., Caller ID), or telephone calls to a particular telephone number can be automatically forwarded by the telephone network to another destination such as another end-user device or an automated message center.
There also are existing premises-based methods of rerouting telephone calls. For example, premises-based automatic call forwarding, or automated answering systems that allow callers to reroute their telephone call.
The existing methods of call screening and forwarding or rerouting of telephone calls have several disadvantages. One distinct disadvantage with respect to caller ID, for example, is that the caller may be calling from a telephone station which is not necessarily associated with the calling individual, and thus the caller ID information actually does not provide the individual at the called station with any information from which call handling may be decided.
In addition, since an end-user device (e.g., telephone set) is often associated with a single telephone number that is shared by multiple individuals (e.g., family members), neither automatic (i.e., without user intervention in response to the call) network-based nor automatic premises-based call forwarding can practicably be implemented since all individuals will not concurrently and identically invoke call forwarding or otherwise concurrently have the same call forwarding requirements. Concomitantly, from the caller's perspective, the preemption of call forwarding reduces the likelihood that the caller will reach a called individual who shares an end-user device identified by a telephone number associated with at least one other individual.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved and additional call identification and call forwarding systems, and particularly for a method and apparatus that allows a call to be forwarded to a particular called party from among a plurality of individuals associated with a common telephone number, and further for an individual at an end-user device to identify the called party and reroute the call to a different destination, or invoke another call handling procedure, without answering the call.